A cladding company has been fined £225,000 following the death of a worker who fell through a fragile roof while replacing cladding panels.
Leslie Bennion, 61, died after falling from a height of 6 metres while working on a roof at Gaerwen Industrial Estate in Anglesey on 24 January 2018.
Bedfordshire-based cladding specialist Camclad Contractors Ltd was fined £225,000 and ordered to pay £10,000 court costs at Mold Crown Court on 30 April, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) announced.
The firm’s director Dominic Lakeman-Pettit was given a suspended prison sentence, the HSE added.
Bennion was replacing cladding panels on a former abattoir that had been damaged in a storm when the incident took place, the HSE said.
Its subsequent investigation found that the work had only been planned from photographs and that no site visit had taken place before the work began.
“The dimensions of the building were not known to the contractor. This meant the cherry picker [that was] hired to allow safe access to height did not reach all parts of the structure that were to be repaired,” the HSE said.
“To complete the work, workers had to leave the safety of the cherry picker basket and used boards found on site to work on the fragile roof. It was while doing this that he slipped and fell through the fragile roof, landing on the concrete floor below.”
Camclad Contractors Ltd, of Wyboston Lakes, Great North Road, Wyboston, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 4(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005.
Lakeman-Pettit, 34, of Great North Road, Wyboston, Bedfordshire, pleaded guilty to breaching section 37(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and was sentenced to four months in prison, suspended for 12 months.
He was also ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work and pay costs of £1,000, the HSE added.
HSE principal inspector Damian Corbett said: “Those in control of work have a responsibility to devise safe methods of working and to provide the necessary information and instruction to their workers in the safe system of working.
“If the work had been adequately planned, it would have provided a suitable safe system of work and prevented the risk of falls through fragile materials,” he added.
“Companies should be aware that HSE will not hesitate to take appropriate enforcement action against those who fall below the required standards.”